Contact details are optional so may or may not exist for a given pointer.
We have some pointers that point to contact details and do not point to documents. These are sometimes referred to as ‘pointers only’. This is because it is useful for somebody to know that somebody is on a certain type of care plan, and who they can contact for more information, even if the document itself is not digitally available. For example, if a paramedic was tending to somebody with chest pain, it might useful to know that the patient is on a mental health crisis plan (even if they cannot see it), as it might lead them to consider if the chest pain is the result of a panic attack, as opposed to a cardiac issue.
Contact details are useful in the event that:
- A document is not digitally available (i.e. there is no ‘view document’ link). The end user may wish to contact the organisation for more details about the patient.
- A document is available but is irretrievable due to a technical issue (e.g. a response time issue). They may wish to contact the organisation for more details about the patient and/or to report the technical fault.
The ‘contact details link’ is usually a publicly available webpage, and the contact details are part of the content of that webpage. For example, the contact details link for a lot of mental health crisis plans supplied by Berkshire is Make an adult mental health referral | Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust